Rihanna Reacts To Super Bowl Slot; Teases Special Guest

Rihanna confirmed last month that she will headline the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in February 2023 via a sly Instagram post. Speculation ran wild before her announcement and hasn't ceased since. Now, fans are wondering what exactly she will do during her performance. 

Will she perform many crowd-pleasing favourites, or will we get our first taste of new Rihanna music since 2016? Fourteen minutes are allotted for Super Bowl performers, allowing for We Found Love, Umbrella, Needed Me, and maybe This Is What You Came For. What keen fans want to know more than anything is who will the guest performers be.

When asked how she felt about headlining the Super Bowl halftime show by TMZ, Rihanna responded, "nervous but excited." More interesting, however, was her answer of "maybe" when asked about whether or not American rapper and father to Rihanna's child A$AP Rocky would join her on stage. It's the first time the Barbadian singer has spoken about her massive performance since the announcement. 

She previously turned down performing at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2019 out of solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. At the time, he was the most lauded player to kneel during the national anthem before the NFL games in protest against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States. As a Super Bowl headliner, Rihanna is in good company: America's most important sporting day has starred superstars such as Prince, Madonna, The Weeknd, Beyonce, and Bruce Springsteen. 

The 2022 Super Bowl delivered "radical love" with a headline performance by Dr Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J Blige, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar. "Hip hop is the biggest genre of music on the planet right now, so it's crazy that it took all of this and all of this time for us to be recognised," Dr Dre said at a pre-show conference. 

Five Rihanna albums - A Girl Like Me, Rated R, Talk That Talk, Unapologetic, and Anti - have reached Platinum status in Australia. At the same time, Good Girl Gone Bad and Loud are 4x Platinum after spurning the hits Umbrella, Shut Up And Drive, Hate That I Love You, Don't Stop The Music, Only Girl (In The World), What's My Name? and S&M. 

Rihanna hasn't toured Australia since her 2013 Diamonds tour. Here's hoping that she makes it back next year.